The Jinx and the Giggler
by SideshowJazz1
Summary: Takes place seven years after the books. Never-serious Aziel Demile is moving from Hartford to Stoneybrook, right in the middle of ninth grade. She's excited about meeting new people - especially flirting with all the boys. But on her first day at Stoneybrook High, she meets a certain adorable jinx, and suddenly there isn't much room for other boys in her life...Jackie/OC. R&R!
1. Chapter 1: In Which Stoneybrook Is Home

**A/N: Oh wow, here we go, my first BSC fanfic. I just hope it doesn't suck. But a certain babysitting charge won't leave me alone, he's like "Could you double my age...oh, and can I have a girlfriend, please? And can I be less of a jinx?" Why does he have to be that adorable one?**

**Oh well, anyway. When I say I'm doubling the characters' ages, this takes place seven years after the series. Therefore, the seven-year-olds are all fourteen. There will be some confusion about ages, like the Arnold twins, who turned eight in one of the books, but I'm sticking them in ninth grade, anyway. And the younger members of the BSC are eighteen, but they're finishing their senior year.**

**Story: Aziel Demile, fourteen, is moving across Connecticut to Stoneybrook. She's excited, but also missing her friends. But on her first day at Stoneybrook High School, she meets a boy who catches her attention with his million-dollar smile and ability to trip at least once daily...you've probably guessed.**

**My favourite babysitting charge is Jackie Rodowsky, so I decided to write a Jackie/OC fanfic where all the characters are older. I might take some creative liberties with the characters (especially since they're older), but I'll try to keep them canon.**

**Disclaimer: Ask someone else about who owns the BSC franchise. I certainly don't.**

"Aziel? We're in town now."

"Whatever." I mumbled. I'd kept up this 'don't wanna move' act since Mom and Dad told me we were moving from Hartford to Stoneybrook. Part of me didn't want to move. In fact, when they first told me, I genuinely wanted to stay where I was until I finished high school (I was fourteen and had just started). I was leaving behind my best friends, my old crush (Howard=Dreamy), and the home I'd been in since...well, forever. But after we visited Stoneybrook for a few days to choose a house (and letting me find out what the town was like), I'd felt excited about moving here, as well as melancholy. I was going to start in ninth grade at Stoneybrook High, and I wasn't too excited about it, but when looking around the town, I'd run into a girl who was about to go and meet her friends – Marilyn. After a conversation, we'd discovered that we had a lot in common – we were both boy-mad, liked wearing skirts better than pants, and listened to outdated pop music(my favourite singers would always be Avril Lavigne and Britney Spears). When I'd told her I was moving and starting halfway through ninth grade, she said "Me and my sister are in ninth grade, too. Maybe we'll be in some of the same classes. Guess I could show you the ropes."

Not to mention, Stoneybrook seemed like a nice town. It was kind of white suburbia (not literally, I passed a house where a very pretty African-American girl of about eighteen was stretching on the porch), but that was kind of cute, like a doll town. And since Marilyn had offered to show me what to do when I started at school, I wasn't too worried.

But no way was I going to show Mom and Dad that I was kind of happy after they'd acted like I should've been happy about it when I only knew the disadvantages of it. Some people can be so insensitive. I got that Mom's job promotion meant we needed to move, but couldn't they be a little more understanding about me having to start over as a blank slate – ie: building my reputation up from scratch? At this moment, as we passed into the city limits of Stoneybrook, I, Aziel Demile, had no reputation and no knowledge of anyone my age – apart from what I'd learned in my five minute conversation with Marilyn.

Finally, we pulled up in front of our one-storey house. I already knew where everything was, having memorized the house. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a kitchen and den. Yeah, that was it.

When I started helping unpack and move furniture (the movers had done the majority, but we had the little things left), I started wishing to be half my age. If I was seven, I would be exploring town on my old skateboard or adjusting my room's furniture.

We got it done in about two hours, though, and by then it was six o'clock and the sun had already set. We had to move here just after Thanksgiving so it was right in the middle of the school year, didn't we? I was going to be so conspicuous. Oh well, it was Saturday. At least I'd have Sunday to look around. Maybe I'd see some other people that were fourteen.

Well, that's what I thought. No, I didn't see anyone fourteen at all. I did pass the playground which had a couple of little girls on swings, with a girl of about twelve watching from a distance, but that was the closest age I could get to.

The best thing about that day was that Mom let me go to Bellair's, the department store, and I bought a new outfit for the next day with my allowance – a leather miniskirt with a white striped long-sleeved shirt and a denim jacket. Conservative, yes, but I wasn't sure what I was going to get. My motto is "whenever in doubt, go for the classics". Well, actually it's "Giggle and flirt and the guys will fall"...Kidding! That was just a totally weird, random thing that popped into my head. That's not how I talk to boys. Actually, I don't have a real motto, but the point is, choosing a classic outfit is probably the wisest thing to do when I'm about to start at a new school and I don't know what's cool and what isn't.

Neighbours started coming around by the afternoon to welcome us to Stoneybrook. No teenagers, again, , since they never came. There were a couple of kids who looked cute, but no one else. The closest person in age to me was a ten-year-old...Nina, I think her name was? Anyway, she was so shy that it would have been incredibly awkward with her, even if she was my age. As it was, her parents tried to get her to be friendly with me. You could almost see the thought bubble with my parents: "There's only four years apart and since we're neighbours, they'll be great friends!" But like I said, Nina was really, really shy. She said "hi" and not much else. I was glad to get away from that by the evening, although we had reminders of the welcomes – vouchers, baked goods, all that new family on the block junk practically everyone in white suburbia America does. Come to think of it, the only non-Anglo neighbours were Asian-American. Not that I cared, but did that mean the town would be racist?

I didn't get much sleep the night before school, but at least I was awake enough to find the office, get a map, locker assignment and new timetable, and take in that I did have someone who was in most of my classes and was going to show me around.

The girl who was supposed to be helping me was leaning against the lockers. She didn't look like the academically geeky type at all, just the socially too-happy type. She smiled as soon as she saw me consulting the map. "Hi!" she said. "Aziel Demile?"

"That's my name." I said brightly, trying to match her enthusiastic tone.

The girl put on a posh voice. "Hello, I'm Margo Pike, and I"ll be your tour guide this semester." She then returned to her normal voice, giggling. "My little sister and I used to practice announcements like that when we were little...it was part of a lot of the games we played. So anyway, Aziel, where're you from?"

"Hartford." I answered. "Totally boring, you don't want to hear about it. What's Stoneybrook like?"

"Uh...ditto?" Margo said, with another giggle. "But seriously, SHS isn't that bad. One of my brothers told me horror stories about hazing, but I knew he was lying. He's a sophomore this year. Speaking of, do you have any brothers or sisters?"

I sighed, smiling. "No. I'm the only one."

Margo looked at me enviously. "You're so lucky! I'm the second youngest of eight. My oldest sister and my three oldest brothers are all seniors...my sister has a late birthday, so she's really older, but whatever. My other older sister's a junior and apart from my other brother, my little sister's still in middle school, seventh grade."

The bell rang at that moment, so we compared timetables. "We both have Math." I said. I didn't hate math, but Margo groaned.

"I hate math." she explained. "I wish we could just have art and drama classes all the time. But anyway, come on!" I followed her, anticipating what would happen next.

**I don't know what Margo would be like when she's twice her age. I hope her being social and hating math isn't too OOC. Please review and tell me if I'm writing anyone wrong. And I made up all that stuff about Nina Marshall being shy because I know nothing about the Marshalls. So review, please, before I screw up even more!**


	2. Chapter 2: In Which Aziel Meets The Jinx

**OK, OK, now we can get into the good stuff! Thanks for reviewing, mcpon14 and Bindzoya Sagiquarius.**

Stoneybrook High was pretty much like my old high school. If it was the same students, I could've sworn I was still in Hartford. However, it felt even more like white suburbia. There were only a few African-Americans in our grade, and I did pass a sophomore who looked a bit like the girl I'd seen on the porch during the visit.

I was relieved when it got to lunch period and I got to sit down with the other freshman girls. I hadn't seen Marilyn at all in class, but Margo seemed to genuinely like me (not just because she was supposed to be looking after me) and invited me to sit with her and her friends, so I didn't have to be stuck on my own. As things went on, they pointed out other kids to me – the weird kids, the popular kids, the...other kids.

I did ask Margo if she knew Marilyn quietly, and she said she did, but the reason she wasn't in school was that she was sick with some kind of flu. "Her sister Carolyn had it last week, and she says that Marilyn probably caught it from her."

I couldn't help giggling. "Wait, Marilyn and Carolyn? Why do their names rhyme?"

"Well, they _are_ twins." Margo said. "We used to think it was pretty funny, too, but then they used to look identical and dress identically. We used to just call them Marilyn-or-Carolyn. But they changed their style a few years back and started dressing differently."

The conversation in the cafeteria turned to boys. "Have you seen any cute guys in our school yet, Aziel?" asked Ellie, an impossibly pretty girly-girl. "Like, if you look around right now, can you see anyone?"

I glanced around and my eyes fell on some boy who was telling some joke that I could see was obviously insensitive in some way. "Not him!" I said, laughing myself. "Nah, can't see any cuties right now."

"I think Buddy Barrett is kind of cute." remarked Sophie, who was quiet and dreamy. "He's a sophomore."

"C'mon, Soph. Boys in our grade and sophomores are really immature." Margo remarked. "Most of them. Come to think of it, most juniors are too – _and _seniors if my brothers are any example."

"So which ones in here are your siblings?" I asked.

"Well," Margo pointed each of them out. "The redhead with the African-American girl, that's Mallory. She's the oldest. The girl with her is Jessi, her best friend." Jessi was the girl I'd seen on the porch that day.

Margo continued. "The three identical boys over there – those are Adam, Jordan and Byron. They're triplets, and they are painfully insensitive and annoying. They and Mal are all seniors." She then pointed to a girl that was sitting with a bunch of others. All of them looked serious. "That over there is Vanessa, she's a junior. She's the least annoying – mainly because she's quiet." Finally, she pointed at a boy that had been sitting near the joke-teller. "And that's Nicky, the one I told you about. His favourite thing to do is pick on me and Claire, who's still in middle school."

After lunchtime, I had a class that wasn't with Margo, so I was running late, staring at my map, when something suddenly smacked into me, knocking me to the ground.

"Ow!" exclaimed another voice. I looked up from my map, and the boy that had knocked into me was already getting to his feet.

"Sorry." I said quickly. "I was looking at my map, so I didn't see you."

The boy shrugged and held out a hand to me. "Stuff happens. Want a hand?" I gratefully took it and he helped me up. "Are you new here?" he asked. "You seem kind of familiar, but I don't think I know you..."

I smiled. "Yeah, you probably don't. You're right, I'm new. My name's Aziel. I'm a freshman."

"Me too!" the boy grinned, his whole face completely lighting up. For the first time, I noticed the boy was a stereotypically freckled redhead with deep blue eyes and a smile worth a million dollars. In all seriousness, he was kind of cute.

"I'm Jackie." he said. "So where are you headed?"

I checked my timetable again. "Um...I think somewhere in the music building."

"Oh, I have Music too!" Jackie said enthusiastically. He looked at my timetable. "Yeah, that's where I'm going. C'mon." So I followed him. "But didn't you have someone else who shared your classes?"

I grinned. "Yeah, Margo Pike is in most of them, but she wasn't in this class, so I told her it was OK to ditch me.

I got the impression that...whatever elective she's taking, her teacher for that class is super-strict, so I told her I could use the map and she pointed me in the right direction."

"Oh, yeah. Margo was in my third period class. I thought you looked familiar. So where're you from?"

"Just Hartford. Not that this place is too different – well, the high school isn't too different. But otherwise, it feels like an old-fashioned toy town with cute cottages and old-fashioned porches, but it's kind of cool, too. My old town was more generic, but what can you do?"

"Sounds like you're on the north side of town." Jackie commented. "That's the older part of Stoneybrook. I live more in central Stoneybrook, and the houses are a bit more modern there."

You get the idea. We talked a lot, even through music class. Jackie was very easy to talk to, probably just because there was this aura of total friendliness around him. Luckily, our teacher was kind of dozy, and didn't seem to notice us whispering.

Jackie wasn't in my last class of the day, so I said goodbye and hurried off. I got to the class without much trouble, and I knew ahead of time that Margo was also in this class. My music class was the only one we didn't share.

"Did you get to class on time?" she whispered.

I nodded. "Yeah, I bumped into one of the boys that was in the same class – Jackie."

Margo looked amused for a moment. "You mean Jackie Rodowsky, the one with freckles? Don't tell me – when you said 'bumped into him', you meant literally?"

I nodded, surprised.

"That's not an unusual occurrence." Margo explained. "When we were little, my sister Mal and her friends used to babysit for a lot of us. I happen to know they used to call Jackie the Walking Disaster. We just call him a jinx. Back when we were kids, we were both on this softball team that one of Mallory's friends formed for kids who didn't want to join Little League, or were too young. I mean, our youngest player was two at the time – she's in fourth grade now. Anyway, in our first game, Jackie accidentally let go of a bat he was swinging and it crashed into the lemonade stand."

I giggled. "Seriously? What did he do then?"

Margo shrugged. "Can't remember. We were only seven."

"Anyway, I didn't see any jinx-like tendencies." I admitted. "I was reading the map, so I'm not really surprised that I ended up walking right into someone. And nothing else happened."

"Fluke." Margo muttered. "Trust me, Jackie Rodowsky is a complete certified jinx."

**Is Margo right? Well, we'll find out in the next chapter. It was nice to put Jackie in, finally. Was he OK? Review and tell me!**


	3. Chapter 3: In Which Aziel Fits In

**Let's continue! Don't lie, you've been waiting for this. Or you'd be lying if you did say that...whatever, this joke is confused, enjoy! Thanks for your reviews, Zoy Sagiaquarius and the guest reviewer (I need more characters in the series who would be in their freshman year – can't remember any).**

The next fortnight passed in much the same way. To be honest, it wasn't too hard to make friends in Stoneybrook, and since Margo was in most of my classes, we did become actual friends. Once Marilyn got back to school, I made friends with both her and Carolyn, although they were very different – if I hadn't been told they were identical twins, I wouldn't have known. While Marilyn was quieter and girly, Carolyn was tomboyish and outgoing. Carolyn also hung out with the sophomores and juniors more (they were at the cutoff age, just a month too young to be sophomores). As such, I became closer to Marilyn.

I got Margo to let me come over to her house, at one point. I was dying to see what her family life was like, and I hadn't even met Claire. We didn't see much of Mallory of all, since she was studying, and her triplet brothers spent the whole time off somewhere else (I suspected Margo knew that was going to happen that day, and that's why she let me come over). Vanessa said one "hi" and then disappeared somewhere in the house, while When Nicky first saw me, he whistled and said "Hey, you're looking cute. Too bad you're friends with my bratty little sister, otherwise I might consider asking you out."

I smiled sweetly back, tossed my hair like Glinda in _Wicked, _and said "You're looking immature. Too bad I'm a friend of your sister, otherwise I might consider giving you a permanent injury."

Nicky left soon after that.

"He's going to Kimball Street. I think he's got a crush on Charlotte Johanssen," Margo whispered to me, "cause that's where she lives, and he's always going over there...I guess it could be Becca Ramsey, though, she lives near too. Charlotte's a junior, but that's cause she got skipped when she was in second grade."

I nodded, although I didn't know Charlotte.

At least I finally got to meet Claire. She was very social and practically bouncing up and down with energy.5

Margo introduced us. "Claire, this is Aziel – she's the new girl in my grade at school. And Aziel, meet Claire, my little sister. Don't freak out when she starts acting weird – she's harmless."

Claire stuck her tongue out at Margo before she greeted me. "Hi, Aziel! So what do you think of Stoneybrook? I think it's so dull, nothing ever happens, but everyone's really nice, aren't they? Did they haze you? Nicky says the sophomores haze everyone in ninth grade-"

"Which I _said _wasn't true." Margo cut in. "Claire, do you believe anything I tell you?"

Claire pretended to think for a moment, then smiled sweetly and replied "No."

"Well, I haven't been hazed." I giggled.

Over time, I started seeing what Margo had meant when she said Jackie was a jinx. I didn't see him that much – only in third and fifth period – but it seemed like if anyone dropped a tray in the cafeteria or fell over backwards on their chair, it would be Jackie every time.

Somehow, that didn't turn me off. There was something about Jackie's friendliness and smile that made people like him enough to overlook the label. Well, me, I should say. He wasn't unpopular with the guys, but didn't have a particular friend, as far as I could tell. And just about every girl I talked to had similar sentiments: "_He's a total jinx. No way am I getting near that train wreck."_

I got from the girls that the label meant Jackie had never had a girlfriend or even a friend who was a girl. Well, I honestly couldn't see myself caring about those tendencies, so I decided to change that. So I hadn't had many guy friends before, and the most serious relationship I'd been in was for a month before I got bored and we had a mutual breakup. But to be honest, how different could a boy be from a girl? Besides, I liked Jackie a lot, and didn't I need all the friends I could get here?

So if I passed Jackie in the hallways or anything, I'd wave and say hi. Ditto in class. After about a week in Stoneybrook, I was passing a block of lockers when I got to Jackie, apparently wrestling with a lock.

"Hey, what's up?" I teased. "You trying to break into someone else's locker or something?"

"My lock got stuck!" Jackie said. He sounded pretty irritated. Finally, the lock gave way and Jackie fell over with the impact. Some books fell out and the lock itself somehow got bent enough so that it wouldn't lock again.

I shrugged. "Well, that sucks." I picked up the books and stuck them back in the locker.

Jackie stood up. "Things like that always happen to me." he admitted. "Since I was a kid. I know everyone calls me a jinx. I can't help it – everything just happens to me for some reason. I remember when I was about seven and I entered the science fair. Jessi – she's a senior at this school-"

"The African-American girl who's really slim and pretty?" I said.

"Yeah...she was babysitting one day, and she persuaded me to enter it, and then I ended up with a volcano. The lava effect was cool, but Jessi kind of took it over and did most of it for me...I mean, she apologized after she realized what she'd been doing, but I worked out afterwards that she did it because she wanted to prove to me that things could go right for me." Jackie scowled, just remembering. "It didn't bother me so much when I was little, and not always even now, but I wish I could just have one day when I don't end up injuring myself or breaking something."

I sighed, remembering a TV show I watched when I was a little kid. "Hey, did you ever watch Nickelodeon when it had those really old Nicktoons? I mean, we were probably too young, but they have this show where they put reruns of old ones. They had this show called _Hey Arnold, _and they had someone that was a true jinx. I mean, nothing ever went right for him. His goldfish died after two weeks, his cool bike got crushed the day after he got it, only one person came to his birthday party, one time he got stuck on a roller coaster and another time in a tree...and people avoided him because of that."

Jackie seemed to brighten up a little, but slumped again quickly enough. "Well, that hasn't happened to me, but that's a TV show. Besides, some people do avoid me. All my friends have been on their first date, and everyone knows that no girl would risk it with me."

I shrugged. "Look, Jackie, think positive. Stop thinking about everything that's gone wrong in your life so far. If you anticipate things will go wrong, they definitely will. Are all your friends guys?"

Jackie nodded. "Yeah. Like I said, girls won't risk hanging around with me."

I laughed. "You're wrong. I'd hang around with you. That is, if you wanna be friends with me."

Finally, Jackie gave one of his brilliant smiles. "Sure!"

This had to be the start of a beautiful friendship.

**What did you think? Please review!**


	4. Chapter 4: In Which Crushes Are Known

**Right! Thank you for reviewing, Kiren, the guest reviewer and ****Zoy Sagiqarius** **(thanks for the ages, and the Jessi thing was in "Jessi's Babysitter").**

My other friends thought I was crazy. "Are you trying to get hurt?" Marilyn exclaimed when I told her. "Don't get sent to hospital – I wouldn't visit. I can't stand medical facilities."

"You know, you could get your thrills by high-risk sports instead." Carolyn suggested when she heard. "You don't need to hang around some boy for danger. You should come with me next time I go to Snowplanet and try snowboarding."

"Do you have a crush on him?" Margo asked slyly, one afternoon. "I can't see anything else that would make you want to be around him."

"Friends means I like him, but I don't have a crush on him." I answered her. "Of course not!"

"Because if you did, I had a better suggestion." Margo continued. "Jackie has a brother who's a junior – Shea. They look exactly alike, except Shea's taller, since he's two years older. But he's not a jinx. He's a better choice to crush on – not to mention he's a sweet guy." She suddenly giggled and said "I remember back when we were about seven. Remember I told you Mallory was in a club of babysitters? Well, one of the older girls had a stepsister that's about our age – I think her name is Karen. And this one time, pretty much the whole club took a bunch of us to this carnival on Mother's Day to give our moms a break from us for the day, and Karen spent the whole day staring at Shea like he was an angel or something."

I was interested. "What happened then?"

"Nothing." Margo shrugged. "We were kids. She goes to a private school, anyway, and she's still in eighth grade, so I don't really know her. So, what about it?"

"Margo, I told you, it's nothing to do with having a crush!" I said. "Besides, even if I did have a crush on Jackie, it would be more about personality, not looks. I'm pretty sure this Shea isn't a sixteen-year-old non-jinx version of Jackie in personality."

Margo shrugged. "Whatever, it's your funeral."

But honestly, Jackie was a lot of fun. That one day, he'd obviously been in a mood. Every other day, his million-dollar grin and bright eyes were present for at least five hours (hey, I mostly saw him in school). Sometimes, after classes, we'd hang around and talk. As I said on the first day, Jackie was just easy to talk to. It was never anything meaningful – just laughing at things together. Even so, it wasn't easy to get Margo's suggestion of a crush out of my head.

As days went by, I started getting to know some of the sophomore girls, too. The classes weren't all divided by age. The classes I went in were originally all freshman ones, but after my first three weeks, the school system decided to put me in the average sophomore class for Math (I'd always been good at it, and the freshman class just didn't challenge me). Of course, it was a little harder than I was used to, but it meant I made friends with some of the older students. Not to mention, a few sophomores were repeating one or two of their freshman classes (Margo told me that one of her triplet brothers – Jordan, I think she said – was repeating junior-level English. "Vanessa, who's brilliant at English, actually has to tutor him, and she's a year younger!"). In Math, I ended up in the desk next to Rebecca Ramsey, more commonly known as Becca (who also happened to be the only African-American sophomore). She was pretty quiet, but I made friends with her easily enough. Through that, I also met her neighbour, Charlotte Johanssen. She seemed really nice, but I could see why she'd skipped a grade. She was super-smart.

One day, I was sitting with the twins at lunch, and I noticed Marilyn seemed distracted. She was staring into space.

"What's up, Marilyn?" I asked.

"Huh?" my friend came back to earth. "Oh, nothing."

Carolyn sighed. "Saying 'nothing' makes things obvious something's up. And second, you should probably confess, seeing as I'm here."

"What difference should that make?" I asked. "Do you know what's going on?"

Carolyn grinned. "We're identical twin sisters. We may be different people, but we know what's up. And I know exactly what's on Marilyn's mind right now – a guy."

"Shut up!" Marilyn hissed. "You don't know anything."

"I know you like someone." Carolyn shot back. "Tell us who it is."

"Come on!" I said. "You don't have to tell anyone who it is, Marilyn. Who cares if you like someone or not?"

"Um, she should tell us. She told me when she had a crush on Nicky Pike." Carolyn argued.

"We were barely eight!" Marilyn argued. "That was no big deal. Besides, he liked me back, which is more than I can say for some of your crushes."

"Which I've talked to you about. So tell us who he is!" Carolyn insisted.

Marilyn sighed. "Aziel, I trust you not to tell. Carolyn, can I trust you?" Her tone was lighter than I expected.

Carolyn's voice had an even more playful tone. "Oh, all I'll tell is Mom and Dad and our cousins, seeing as it's a sister's duty to embarrass her twin...of course you can!"

Marilyn looked around, and whispered "It's him." she pointed across to a group of juniors and sophomores, to a particular boy.

Carolyn glanced over. "James Hobart, huh?" she said. "Whatever. I guess he's kind of cute."

I grinned. "So what's he like?"

"Well," Marilyn whispered, "For one thing, he's got this adorable accent. The Hobarts are Australian, and they never really lost their accents. Well, the parents haven't, and nor have the older boys – Ben's a senior, James is, of course, a sophomore, and Matthew's still in middle school, eighth grade. Their brother Johnny sounds more American like us, but then he's still in sixth grade – they moved here seven years ago."

"Go on." I said.

Marilyn looked shy. "I don't know him that well." she admitted. "But he seems nice, and I know he's single now. I've heard rumours that he was dating a seventh-grader at one point, but even the girl in question, Myriah Perkins, she says it's not true. Apparently she was hanging out with Matthew and James happened to be there – some stupid people made up the rumour and things happened. You wouldn't believe some of the people on their block. When the Hobarts first moved in, everyone used to call them Crocs."

"Some people are so judgemental." I said, rolling my eyes. "Wonder what they'd call a New Zealander. A Kiwi wouldn't be an insult, seeing as that's what they call themselves anyway."

At that moment, I heard a familiar "Ow!" from across the room and sure enough, I spotted Jackie across the room. He'd apparently tripped over something and now was standing up, face the colour of his hair and freckles nearly invisible because of it.

I couldn't help but smile, although I felt bad for my friend. Margo, who was at a different table, happened to look over at me and caught my smile. She smirked and mouthed "_You like him."_

I pulled a face back, but decided to think about it seriously when I had the time.

**Aziel, seriously, who makes time to think about stuff? Well, actually, I do, but whatever. Please, give me a review!**


	5. Chapter 5: In Which Marilyn Makes Over A

**Well, now Aziel will work out the answer to her last question. Thank you to both guest reviewers. I should clear up some misunderstandings, though, that I got from reviewers. I probably did make a mistake with Karen, because she just started kindergarten in the first book, but seems to skip being six altogether. Myriah's age in canon would make her twelve or thirteen – she is definitely younger than Karen, yet someone said she would be in the same grade as the other characters. She was five or six in canon, while the ninth-graders here were all seven. And someone also suggested that Margo would still know Karen, but they go to different schools and live in neighbourhoods far away from each other. Even if Stoneybrook is small, I can't imagine them associating that much.**

After I'd finished my homework that night, I thought about what Margo had suggested seriously. Did I really have a crush on Jackie? I hadn't known him for that long, but I really enjoyed hanging out with him and he was great to talk to.

There was something that made me like Jackie, right from the start. Yeah, I liked talking to him, but I remembered the first time I'd seen him smile. There was only one person I'd ever seen that could make a smile that beautiful and that was a young Michael Jackson, before he got that skin infection and his skin started going all pale and patchy. Back before that, his smile was worth a million dollars, and Jackie had that same quality. It didn't hurt that he had blue eyes, a feature I'd always liked on a guy. And it helped even more that it contrasted with his red hair...

"Oh!" I groaned when I realized it, and immediately dialed Margo's cell number. No sense in making her wait to gloat. Better she did it in front of her family or alone than in front of our grade...though I suspected she'd tell Claire no matter what, since they seemed to tell each other everything.

"Aziel?" Margo picked up on the first ring.

"Hi." I said. "Um...you were right."

Margo giggled. "I usually am...but about what?"

"About Jackie." I said. "I thought about it, and I realized. I think he's cute, he's smart, he's funny, and he has the most amazing smile. I think I may have a crush on him – I mean, I realized I think more about him than I'd think about the average guy friend."

Margo laughed again. "Girl, you have totally lost it. But then again, who am I to judge who you like? Want me to talk to you for him?"

"Nah, _Mean Girls _told me to never do that." I said. "Not that I don't trust you, but I think he'd be more likely to tell one of the guys before one of my friends, cause he knows it would get back to me."

"Whatever." Margo said. "David Michael is in our grade, and I've seen him hanging out with Jackie before. Want me to ask him to ask Jackie? We don't talk much, especially since he moved when we were kids – I know his sister better, because she used to babysit – but I think he'll do me a favour if I ask."

"Sure." I answered. "Would you? Thanks, I owe you one."

"I'm holding you to that!" Margo teased. "See you at school, Azzy!" We both hung up, me with crush-mode starting to kick in properly, now. Maybe it was Margo's fault – she'd planted the idea, and made me overthink it so much that it came true. But that tingly feeling in my stomach told me that it wasn't just an idea any more – it was real. And honestly, I thought, I could do worse. I knew from our conversations that Jackie was a perfectly nice guy with a lot of heart. And although he had been a bit disullusioned that day his lock broke, instances when he acted that way were few. Mostly, he would have that amazing smile.

I took a week to get the report back to me. Margo had done what she said she would – she just took ages to get it done. "According to what I got, Jackie said you were cute with a good sense of humour – and that you're smart." she told me. "He doesn't think of you in potential girlfriend terms...not yet, anyway. Cute, he said, but rest assured that he hasn't thought of asking you out." A smirk crossed her face. "Well, we should change that."

Marilyn looked at me, her eyes piercing and intense. She smiled after a minute. "Got it!" she said. "OK, my house, tomorrow after school. Operation Makeover."

I groaned. "Marilyn, don't do this to me!" I begged. "I hate being stuck in a chair for hours while going through increasingly painful torture that's supposed to make me look better."

"You'll like the end result." Margo said dismissively. "We should ask some of the others in our neighbourhood for opinions. I know some of Vanessa's friends will have good ideas."

"You could always ask me." Carolyn suggested, sarcasm dripping from her tone. It wasn't cold, just teasing.

"I don't ask you because you're my sister and you have different ideas." Marilyn told her. "Unless you know Jackie better than any of us."

"No, that's your victim." Carolyn laughed. "Anyway, if you're going to ask any of the other girls, I'm suggesting Haley Braddock. She's got to have some good tips." Haley was one of the juniors. I didn't really know her, but I'd seen her around – a very pretty blonde with a heart shaped face, a creamy complexion and an infectious smile.

The makeover was pretty much how I imagined – me sitting in front of Marilyn's dresser while the other girls tried out different looks on me for an hour before they finally decided they'd found the right style and let me see what they'd been doing.

I stared into the mirror at myself. They'd left my dark hair loose, but they'd straightened it to perfection. The makeup was pretty light, really, but usually, I stuck to only eyeliner and mascara. The girls had added a little bit of blusher and eyeshadow – a gold-green colour. They'd also insisted on silver nail polish. I hated to admit it, but maybe the hour was well spent.

"Do you think Jackie will like this kind of thing, though?" I asked.

Marilyn laughed. "Are you kidding?" she said. "He's not the only one who will, either. Trust us, we know boys, and we know what they consider knockouts." She tapped the mirror. "This mirror shows us a girl that is absolutely positively Jackie Rodowsky's type. That kind of boy – the sweet, friendly, but kind of goofy type – likes their girls natural, but willing to look good."

Even Dad gave a double take when I got home, but in a good, non-creepy way. "Aziel!" he said. "You look great, sweetheart."

I grinned. "Thanks." I replied. But my parents wouldn't be the real test. The real test would be school tomorrow. All I could say was, it was a good thing the teachers at SHS didn't pay much attention to how much makeup the girls wore.

**Sorry about the long wait and shortness of the chapter! I'm having some problems right now. Please review!**


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